Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The following is my projection on how much each ship will cost in Star Citizen based on a few facts and some assumptions.

Facts:
1. Ship insurance is going to be offered on a monthly basis and by definition, each ship needs to have its own insurance.
2. A basic monthly subscription at Centurion level starts at $10/mth.

Assumptions:
1. Ship insurance is going to be the main revenue source for the game
2. $1 in real life money = 1000 credits
3. To 'play' the game, players will need to be flying a ship which is insured.
4. The game will forbid players from flying ships which are not insured.
5. If a ship's current monthly insurance runs out, you will need to buy another monthly insurance for it.
6. Ship insurance is offered in multiples of 30 days, eg 30/60/90/120 days
7. Ship insurance needs to be relatively cheap, less than or equal to credits worth $15/mth = 15,000 credits/mth, based on prevailing standard MMO subscription rates of $15/mth.

Estimating the costs of each ship in in-game credits

Aurora
Looking at the Digital Scout package, it gives you an Aurora ship with 1000 credits and 2 months ship insurance, at a cost of $30. Based on a subscription model of $10/mth. 2 months ship insurance would be worth 2x$10 = $20. Why? Because I can fly the ship for 2 months, effectively allowing me to play the game for 2 months in that ship, equivalent to a Centurion level subscription for 2 months.
This would mean that the basic Aurora ship costs:
$30 (Digital scout package) - $20 (ship insurance) = $10 = 10,000 credits (assuming $1=1000 credits)

Now, we know that pledge ships are also available as digital add-ons for people who pledged during the crowd-funding campaign. Working backwards with the data from above to find how much lifetime ship insurance for each ship is worth, we have:

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Chris Roberts and team celebrating at the end of the crowd-funding campaign

Woot! Congrats to Chris Roberts and his team at Cloud Imperium Games for raising $6.2 million dollars for their crowd-funding campaign for Star Citizen! Below is their Facebook posting on the final amount raised. Of the $6,238,563 raised, $4,104,189 was from the RSI website and $2,134,374 from Kickstarter. Total number of space sim fans: 89,667. It should be noted that this number is inflated because some people pledged on both RSI and Kickstarter, and the final number of supporters should be approximately between 55k to 89k.

Below you can find a list of all the stretch goals unlocked for Star Citizen!
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/13gjvq/simple_list_of_all_were_getting_as_of_6m/

Total raised: $6,238,563General features:

Full orchestral score (I personally suggest Bear McCreary (BSG, The
Walking Dead) or Thomas Bergensen (Two Steps from Hell) as both
candidates have the chops to compose epic scores!)

100 systems to explore in persistent universe (single server like
Eve Online, post-single player campaign World. See below for full blog
post by CR on instancing mechanics and how PvP will work. Take note you
WILL be able to create private servers and mod them to your heart's
content)

50 SP branching missions in Squadron 42 campaign

Professional mocap

Celebrity voice over (at least one original cast member will return. MARK HAMILL COME ON OVER!)

AMX-1 Repair Droid "Thanks to a network of nine telescoping flex
arms, the AMX-1 can access and repair any standard ship system with
ease. Though it lacks the full speech boards and the emotional memory
cores of more expensive models, the trademark whirring and beeping of an
AMX is a welcome sound for anyone charting a path between the stars."

Ability to fly through a planetary atmosphere to siphon hydrogen to use as fuel

Manual take-offs and landings on carriers

Fully modular ships. Damaging key components will affect flight
capabilities. Although built slightly simpler than the smaller ships,
capital ships will have sub-targets we will be able to destroy to
incapacitate or disable it.

Multi-person ships. The RSI Constellation (250$+ tier or available
via add-on) can be piloted by a single person, but has room for 3 more.
The ship has a dockable P52 fighter friends can use, as well as two
mannable turrets (think Millenium Falcon). It has not been confirmed
whether crew ships can be manned by NPCs if friends are not available to
drop-in your ship and control the fighter and turrets.

Tractor beams

Choose between male and female avatars, and they will be customizable, though not to the extent of Skyrim

A frickin' lamp!!!!

Monthly backersCenturion 10$/month:

The ability to participate in the live monthly team “show and tell.”
We will answer twenty questions from subscribers (selected via voting
system.) Subscribers will watch the update live as it is being recorded.
Jump Point, the monthly digital magazine of Star Citizen. A 4-6 page
monthly newsletter which includes updates from the team and new
in-universe Star Citizen fiction from the writing team.

Access to “The Vault,” a collection of Star Citizen artwork that
would otherwise never be seen, including ‘paths not taken’ discarded
concept art for the true collector.

An exclusive catalog of Star Citizen subscriber merchandise.

Your name in the game. We can’t tell you where you’ll find it, but
if you subscribe for at least 12 months your name will be located
somewhere in the Star Citizen world!

Centurion decal for your ship

Imperator 20$/month:
Everything listed above, plus…

Visit Cloud Imperium and see how the game is made! Imperator-level
subscribers will be allowed one visit per year (scheduled in advance) to
the Star Citizen development offices in Austin or Los Angeles.

Three wishes – Chris Roberts will personally reply to three of your questions a year.

Your name on the wall-of-honor at Cloud Imperium HQ if you subscribe for at least 12 months.

Jump Point: Year One, a printed collection of Jump Point issues
provided to anyone who subscribes for the entire first year of
development.

Imperator decal for your Ship.

Ships
All of these ships will be available at launch and be obtainable
in-game either for in-game credits or by capture. The main advantage of
pledge ships is the lifetime insurance on the hull. Insurance up to 12
months will be available in game, but lifetime insurance cannot be
bought for any ship once the game is released.

Vanduul Fighter | Vanduul fighter was confirmed to have 12
thrusters, 7 missiles, fixed weaponry, and the asymmetrical wing is
reinforced for ramming. CR also stated that it was crippled for
cinematic effect in the footage we have seen of them in action.

Idris-class Corvette | "Larger than a bomber but smaller than a ship
of the line, corvettes occupy an interesting space in the pantheon of
warships. While they lack the heavy armor and the capital weaponry of a
cruiser, corvettes are more maneuverable and are highly configurable.
Even the least expensive models feature numerous upgrade slots and
multiple hard points for turrets and missiles. Corvettes are also
frequently used for boarding actions; a single ship can support a team
of marines capable of taking the fight to the decks of larger warships
and stations."

Bengal Carrier | It will be used as a clan base and CR said it will be very hard to get.

Bases
The Bengal carrier shown in the trailer will be your base for the
duration of the SP campaign. In the persistent universe, there will be
multiple types of bases.

Skins
Skins can be purchased separately and applied to ships using the
Electro Skin Hull Enhancement module. The module and most skins are
available as 5$ add-ons.
Note: one skin is exclusive to a tier, some are automatic stretchgoal
rewards and there is one skin exclusive to Kickstarter as well.

All pledges and add-ons can be added or upgraded in first 12 months
after campaign has ended so long you pledged before it did end.

KS and RSI pledges will be combined once campaign has ended

All pledges and add-ons count towards a "total" pledge amount that
will reflect what Citizen card you get (so if you got the 60$ tier on KS
but added over 200$ in add-ons, you're considered a "Rear Admiral"
pledger (250$+))

Pledges guarantee lifetime insurance on the hull ONLY. All upgrades and cargo will be lost.